Re: Compiling Emacs with GTK

[David Kastrup]

August <fusionfive@comhem.se> writes:

> On tor, 2005-02-24 at 00:26 +0100, David Kastrup wrote:
>> August <fusionfive@comhem.se> writes:
>> 
>> > Can I compile Emacs so that it uses GTK style scrollbar and
>> > menubar?  I have tried to configure Emacs 21.3 with the
>> > `--with-x-toolkit' option, but it doesn't work.
>> 
>> It wouldn't.  You need a developer version of Emacs to compile for
>> GTK.
>
> I assume you mean Emacs CVS. As GTK has been around for quite some
> time it's strange that the standard release still has no support for
> it.

The code base forming the last release was released as 21.1 in 2001.
Since then, only bug fix releases have occured.

Qt/KDE have also been around for quite some time, and support of them
is not even planned.

> The standard (Motif?) scrollbar looks (excuse me) so darn ugly and I
> think Emacs deserves a more appealing appearance on the GNOME
> desktop.

You'll probably scream out in horror, but I use
--with-gtk --without-toolkit-scroll-bars
for my version of Emacs, with a few X resources to make the default
scroll bars somewhat broader and nicer in color.

And that's because the ergonomics of almost all toolkit scrollbars
suck.

To change the direction of moving, I have to move the mouse.  I can't
control the size of the move except by dragging (a recipe for RSI).
When scrolling in one direction repeatedly, the moment the scroll
"thumbmark" gyrates under the mouse cursor, it stops working.  Let
GTK+ offer a customization option "Athena style scrollbar semantics",
and I won't be forced to replace them in order to use scrollbars
productively.  No mistake: the native, Athena style toolbars _look_
awful (and you can't mix the "real" Athena or its visually more
attractive variant Xaw3d with GTK+) and screenshots from my Emacs
sessions are not a recommendation.

But I won't tolerate crippled scrollbars just because they are more
visually appealing.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum